Talk:The Lying Queen/@comment-3041875-20170123023230
So, this was obviously a standout episode of the series, and for me, it was the first perfect 10/10 episode. Joanna (or Emilie, as I'll call her for this review, to avoid confusion) has been one of the most interesting characters since very early on and to be able to carry a full episode on her own based upon her backstory and make it so entertaining is a large credit to what a strong character she is. The Good – Let's start with the teaser, which was excellent. I enjoyed the flashes of the burn, and how Emilie addressed all of the butlers. I was just waiting for a line like, "And you... Ben, was it? Well, I guess you're on break or something," and then when it came, I found it hilarious. It was really nice then how Joe went on to say how the butlers will all be including each other in everything from now on, and I'm curious to see how true that ends up being. The birth of the twins was a very unexpected twist for me, and so was the religious upbringing. Both very good ones. The religious element of her background is of course immediately intriguing because we know she grows up to marry Matthew, so I was straight away wondering why and how she could ever bear marrying someone like that after having the parents she did. Her parents and the priest trying to cure her darkness was very interesting, and I enjoyed the explanation over the church's explosion, as well as the appearance from Joe and his adoptive mother. It was further fascinating because there was suggestion, like from the burning holy water, that there was actually something supernatural going on and fundamentally evil about Emilie. At times, I was wondering if we had crossed over to a fanfiction for The Omen. It was great watching Emilie question this too, such as when the church exploded, and how scarring that must have been for her. You didn’t go overboard though with the suggestions, striking the perfect balance, so I was still able to wonder if she was truly born with evil in her or if it was her parents trying to cure her evil that made her do evil. The scene with the missionary group was quite amusing, what with their song and all. Obviously, we knew part of her childhood was spent in Africa from the "mud-hut" reference during her drunken speech, but it was cool seeing how exactly it placed in her story. The death of the missionaries was a good development, while their betrayal added further fuel to her hate on religion. Emilie's travelling and then meeting Nadia, with their war on religion was very interesting, and amusing how they became as dangerous as the terrorists they were so angered by. I enjoyed the appearance of the Kappellettis. I was wondering, of course, how Emilie's twin sister would come back into it and the reveal that she had been Matthew's first wife was an excellent one. The fact that she was also evil, just better at hiding it, was pretty great, and worked out better of course, because if Emilie had killed her good sister, then it would have been much harder to believe the butlers forgiving her in the end. I liked the explanation that Emilie's sister had replaced the holy water with acid, and how that confirmed in her mind that there truly was no God, and right before beginning her life with Matthew, too. It worked out great, too, because it fooled Nadia into thinking Emilie was dead, making it so Emilie didn’t need to dispose of her sister's body (we know from Matthew, she was no good at that, so wouldn’t have been very believable if she was suddenly able to perfectly do so). It's great that Nadia's still around, blowing up churches in present-day, ready to potentially come back into the main story. The flashes of all the hints and previous scenes were all great. Jo not remembering anal was something that always stuck out to me. While most the other stuff I explained by her being a drunk, I knew there was something odd about that, but certainly never thought it was because she was a twin of the real wife! Joe forgiving her was a nice way to end the story, and I'm curious to see things progress further in present-day now. The Bad – Nothing important. Overall – Sorry this review doesn’t quite do the episode justice, but there's only so much to write when there's no faults and I'm not just complimenting the things you wrote; also there's no best butler section for obvious reasons. But, yeah, I truly believe this was a perfect episode, guys, so congratulations and well done. I think you waited the perfect amount of time to lay this all out to us, giving the optimum amount of payoff. The episode was entertaining in it's own right also, continuously surprising me with further twists and developments. Joanna also truly had a very interesting backstory, that will hopefully cause further consequences in present-day, such as with Nadia, and that had an engaging theme throughout, with her struggles over religion. Definitely, the strongest episode of the series so far, and proved Joanna to be the most interesting character.